India Needs a Directly Elected President: Forum for Presidential Democracy

The Forum for Presidential Democracy, a political party dedicated to bringing the presidential form of government to India, recently launched a campaign promoting a directly elected President for the country. In this outdoor media effort the Forum calls for a President who is directly elected, rather than “selected” by India’s political party bosses. Hoardings of this “Stop the Game of Thrones” campaign were displayed on some of the busiest roads in Mumbai (see photos below).

A similar effort in 2011 inspired the then general secretary of the BJP, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, to join the cause of changing India’s system from parliamentary to a presidential type. He attended The Forum of Presidential Democracy’s events, and in 2013, Rudy submitted a Resolution in India’s Rajya Sabha calling for “direct elections for chief executive at the Centre and States.” Rudy’s resolution also asked India to institute proper presidential-type “separation of powers” in its system of government.

However, before Rajya Sabha could bring Rudy’s Resolution to debate, the Congress government fell. Now, since 2014, Rudy is a member of the current BJP government at the Center, and is hardly interested in reviving his call for a change in India’s system of government.

The Forum of Presidential Democracy’s efforts toward changing India’s rotten system of government have now continued for more than three decades. Its convenors Jashwant Mehta and O.P. Monga ought to be applauded.